The Not-So Perfect Girl
by ducky-doll
Summary: *Ch 2* Cho Chang is viewed as Miss Perfect. She has everything that everyone else wants- good looks, popularity, a place on the Quidditch team & all the boys want her. But deep down inside, Cho is a messed up girl. Please R/R!
1. Chapter One

** **

"The Not-So Perfect Girl"

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Chapter One... 'Miss Perfect'

Cho Chang smiled as she made her way down the Hogwarts corridor. She was ready to start the year! She held her bright pink and green books close to her chest and walked with a bounce in her step as she made her way from one class to another. 

"Hey Cho!" said her friend, Amy Boufle as she passed her. 

"Hi Amy," replied Cho happily.

"Cho, how's it going?" said a seventh year boy, Brian Mattwall. 

"Not bad thanks Brian," she answered, giving off a radiant smile that made Brian's day. 

"Cho, here!" Just as she passed Brian, somebody else thrust a small ripped off piece of parchment in her hand. It was Ben Saunders, one of Cho's closest friends and fellow sixth year Ravenclaw.

"Oh, thanks Ben, see you later in Muggle Studies!" she said, carefully unfolding the note as she entered the Potions classroom. It was a class she hated with a passion however in order to fulfill her dream career as a doctor in the wizarding world, she had to take it. She hid the note under one of her brightly coloured folder covers and looked around for a seat, finding one in the middle row next to Nicole Portman, her bestfriend. 

Cho got out her Potions books and parchment and sat perched with a quill at the ready, prepared to take vital notes. Professor Snape barely bothered picking on Cho anymore as Ravenclaw wasn't much of a threat to his prized Slytherin's chances of victory for the House Cup. It always came down to Gryffindor Versus Slytherin and it had since Cho had ever attended Hogwarts. That wasn't to say she didn't _like_ being in Ravenclaw, she was actually very proud of it. 

Once Snape had begun rambling on about different ingredients that belonged to the wallabis family, Cho pulled the note from Ben out of the safety of her folder and began to read it.

__

Hey Cho,

What's been happening? Haven't talked to you for ages! Anyway, I'm in Arithmancy right now and you know how that bores the pants off me so I thought I'd write you a quick note. My life is pretty boring I guess, how were your summer holidays? Mine were okay I guess, nothing particularly eventful happened. I'm so excited about this year's Quidditch season though... I think now that we have those two new Beaters that we might have a stronger chance of winning, perhaps even against the mighty Gryffindor. Tell me what's been going on with you, I can't wait to catch up later.

Love, your pal,

Ben

She smiled as she put the note away back under her books. Trying to regain her concentration, she began listening to what Snape was actually saying and took down notes for the rest of the class. It went slowly as all the Potions classes did and when it was over, Cho walked out of the room feeling very, very relieved.

* * * * *

As she began munching on a salad sandwich, she listened intently to Nicole who was telling the group about the boy she'd been seeing over the holidays.

"Oh, he's positively wonderful!" she was gushing. "We walked along the beach for _hours_, holding hands, kissing, touching one another..." she sighed dreamily. "Heaven I tell you... pure heaven."

Marty and a couple of the others giggled. "Sounds like you had fun then. What about you Cho?"

Cho looked up from her sandwich. "Me? Oh nothing too dramatic. Mum and Dad sent me off on a sailing trip with the 'Young Sailors Foundation.'"

"Oooh," babbled Nicole. "Young Sailors? Any hot young male sailors?"

"Nicole!" scowled Cho. "Unlike _you_, I do not just get it off with any member of the male species!"

Nicole looked hurt for a moment but quickly recovered. "I do not get it off with just _any_ member of the male species... all the ones I choose are good looking!"

The group burst into another fit of giggles, Cho included. Even she had to admit she belonged to the 'popular group'. Most, though she wasn't aware of it, idolised Cho. She was the leader of the pack and whatever she did, everyone else followed too. If Cho got her hair cut, the others got their hair cut. If Cho liked a certain musical group, the others all listened to it too and so on. It wasn't like she _asked_ for all of this attention, there was just something about Cho's personality that gained it automatically. She was the sweetest of girls though and at times, was completely oblivious to how she affected the boys at school. 

Cho tuned out of the conversation however which was quickly changing back to Nicole's holidays. She gazed around the rest of the school yard, at all of the other students... some of the older ones were also sitting having lunch, younger students were running around playing games. One of the students in the year below Cho locked eyes with her.

She gave a small nervous smile at Harry Potter who returned the smile just as nervously. His attention was distracted by his friends though and he looked away. Cho continued watching him for a moment though and wished she could be more like him... so self-assured and confident. It never did strike her that others would stare at her all the time and wish they were more like her. 

"Earth to Cho!" somebody was saying when she returned to the conversation. "Hello? Anyone in there?" Marty pretended to knock on Cho's head causing eruptions of laughter and a scowl from Cho.

"Sorry," she muttered an apology. "What were you saying?"

Amy looked at Cho, her eyes wide. "I was just asking what was happening with you and Ben?" she winked suggestively.

"Ben Saunders?" cried Cho.

They nodded.

"Oh gracious no, we're just friends, just friends for sure!" Cho could feel her cheeks burning up with embarrassment.

Nicole giggled. "Yeah right!"

"No really," Cho protested. "We're just friends!"

* * * * *

Cho spent the rest of the day trying to persuade her friends that she was infact, just friends with Ben. This task was proven difficult to achieve, especially during Muggle Studies when Ben saved her a seat and they spent the majority of the class chatting instead of learning about the purpose of the 'microwave'. 

Everyone had to admit it. Ben was hot property. Rumours had been circulating for ages that he fancied Cho and vice versa but both denied anything but friendship. The main reason the student body seemed to have paired them up, appeared to be because they were both dashingly good looking. 

Cho had a fabulous figure, small yet curvacious. She had full cherry lips and big deep brown eyes. Her long black hair shined constantly and clothes seemed to fit her like a glove.

Ben was tall, dark and handsome... a girl's dream. He was athletic and played as the Keeper for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, where Cho was Seeker. He had an athletic build and a gorgeous toothpaste commercial smile that made many heart's flutter. 

By night time though, any thoughts of herself and Ben being romantically linked flew out the window. She stood staring at her picture perfect reflection in the mirror before changing into her pyjamas. She began brushing her teeth and washing her face before glancing back up at herself, the water running smoothly down her skin.

She sighed and dried her face, combing her silky hair with a blue brush. She took a few steps back to study her body.

"There's not an inch of fat on you," remarked her reflection. However this was not what Cho was really thinking on the inside.

__

You're pathetic, is what was really crossing her mind. _Just pathetic. Look at you. Cho Chang, you should be ashamed of yourself! _

She gave another dramatic sigh before frowning at herself and returning to the bedroom where she put on another grand smile and entertained the other girls with more stupid stories that they all thought were positively amazing! 

__

No matter how wonderful they THINK you are Cho Chang, you know inside that you're just a pathetic and silly little girl, she thought as she lay wide awake on her bed, finding it impossible to get a wink of sleep.

****

Author's Note: So whaddya think? It's a bit of a short first chapter I know but I'm pretty sure they will get longer from here on in. It's the first fic I've ever done that concentrates on Cho as the main character and because we don't learn much about her from JK Rowling, I'm finding it pretty interesting to make up her life and those around her. So send me an owl (or just leave a review) with all your comments, bitching, marriage proposals or death threats! 


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two... 'My Reflection'  
  
  
  
Cho ran through the rooms... they were repeating themselves over and over again. It was her home back in the muggle world. There was her Daddy and her Mummy and even Patch the Dalmation dog. But the rooms, they just didn't seem to end.  
  
"Mum! Dad!" Cho cried, tears streaming down her face as she tried to make sense of what was happening. But in an instant, she saw her parents fall to the ground one at a time, she saw them fall down to their death. Patch barked before keeling over too, that was to be his last bark.  
  
She kept running, she didn't want to look back. She saw her friends, Nicole, Ben, Amy, Marty, Jake and Panda were just a hundred metres away. She reached out to them, using every muscle in her body. But they just kept getting further and further away. She dared to look behind her and found what was terrifying her... what was making her run. It was herself chasing after her.  
  
  
  
Cho sat up in bed, startled with beads of perspiration dripping off her. Panting for breath she looked around the room and found everything was normal, or at least how it was meant to be. She collapsed back down on the pillow before instantly straightening herself up again. What was the time? She looked at her beside table. 8:43. Oh no! Quidditch Training!  
  
She jumped out of bed and threw on some clothes before quickly shoving her hair into a messy ponytail. She grabbed her boots and broomstick out of the cupboard before running down the stairs that connected the common room to the Girls' Dormitories and collided with Ben on the way out of the Ravenclaw Tower.  
  
"Running late too?" he remarked as they sprinted towards the Quidditch Pitch.  
  
All she could so was nod in reply as she struggled to keep up with his long strides.  
  
They made it just in time but arrived to find the rest of the team already there. Cho ignored the winks and wolf whistles they recieved but luckily (in some respects), their captain Bella Trisse was in a grumpy mood and made them all shut up quickly.  
  
They began their warm up exercices which consisted of flying round and round in varied formations and working as a team to move the Quaffles up and down the pitch between goal areas. Quidditch was the one time Cho really felt alive. She breezed through the air, not a care in the world because up here... among the clouds, no one cared how she looked or what she was wearing or who she was hanging out with, up here, the only person that mattered was her.  
  
"Good flying Chang!" called Trisse from the opposite end of the pitch. "Watch it there Saunders, nearly dropped it!"  
  
Cho held back a giggle as she saw Ben try to pull off a tricky move known as the Starfish and Stick but did so unsuccessfully causing him to lose his balance and very nearly, go crashing to the ground.  
  
The Beaters Ben had mentioned in his note were astounding. Sugar and Barley Wheat were a couple of Third Year twins who were zooming around like there was no tomorrow. They were in one corner of the field, perfecting their 'Dopplebeater Defence' and quite well too. Cho was admiring their work when a bludger came whistling past, skimming her cheek and bringing her back to reality. She stopped concentrating on what everyone else was doing and did her routine training which was catching the Golden Delicious Apples that had been charmed to act like the Golden Snitch. She raced around, darting in and out of the other players until she'd managed to collect every single apple and had them sitting quite cosily under her yellow jacket.  
  
"Okay team, come back down!" said Trisse after about an hour of flying time.  
  
Each of the players slowly descending until touch down and huddled around Trisse in a small circle.  
  
"Okay team, you know what we have to do this year. We have a fantastic team. One of the best we've had for years... I even overhead Dumbledore and McGonagall talking the other day and they reckon it's the best team Ravenclaw have had since 1923. Now all we have to do is work hard, train hard, play hard and win!" Trisse said, very determined.  
  
This put Cho and the others in determined moods too. She was right. It was a good team. Great even. With Cho as seeker, Trisse as Keeper, the Wheat twins as Beaters and Ben, Kelly Shortail and Basil Bomp as their Chasers they were ready for one hell of a Quidditch year!  
  
  
  
* * * * *  
  
  
  
Cho watched in absolute disgust as Ben shovelled down three bowls of cereal and seven pieces of toast with raspberry jam splattered over the top.  
  
"I think I'm going to be sick," she remarked as she watched the jam ooze down his mouth.  
  
"All right," he said with his mouth full. "As long as you don't do it over my toast."  
  
Cho tried to avoid watching his bad table manners and looked back at her own breakfast which consisted of two pieces of toast with butter. She watched the butter melt into the hot bread and took a small bite. It didn't taste so wonderful. She put the remainder down and waited patiently for everyone else to finish eating too.  
  
"Aren't you hungry after all that training today?" asked Trisse who was watching her from the opposite side of the Ravenclaw table.  
  
"Not really," admitted Cho. "Just don't feel like it."  
  
"All right," replied Trisse. "Just eat one bit. Don't want any of my players to faint in the sky."  
  
Cho nodded and forced down a bit of toast. She immediately wanted to throw it all up. Maybe she was sick. Come to think of it, that crazy nightmare last night seemed to have affected her.  
  
"Have I got a temperature?" she asked Nicole who was seated on her other side.  
  
Nicole lifted a hand up and rested it on Cho's forehead. "Hmm... a little bit, but no major meltdown. Maybe you should say Madam Pompfrey in the Infirmary before class."  
  
Cho shrugged it off. She didn't feel that under the weather. Infact, her day was beginning to look rather happy.  
  
She waited for her dirty dishes to be removed before collecting her books and heading off to her first class of the day, followed by at least a dozen 'Cho-Wannabes'.  
  
  
  
* * * * *  
  
  
  
Friday was one of Cho's favourite days of the week. Why? Because it meant the end of the week and a Hogsmeade trip the next day. She loved Hogsmeade... no student didn't really. Because it was the end of the week, classes always went quicker. Well they did for her. Instead of concentrating on what they were meant to be learning, they all just passed notes and chatted in hushed whispers about what they were planning on doing on the weekend and what they wearing to Hogsmeade.  
  
It was lucky that Cho was a naturally gifted student, the main reason she was put in Ravenclaw. She still distinctly remembered the sorting hat saying 'Ah.. what a brilliant mind' when she'd first started out in Hogwarts. Because she was so clever, Cho didn't have to pay nearly as much attention to class as people like Nicole... or Ben did for example. She picked up information and stored it in her brain even if she only heard it passing by. Cho was able to pluck it all out at crucial exam time too and remember it as if she'd heard it just a second ago.  
  
"Miss Chang, may I ask you where the Mingollover Tree originates from?" said Professor Sprout.  
  
Cho looked up from the note she'd just recieved from Marty across the room ('Do you think the black top would go with my new jeans?'). "The Mingollover Tree comes from the Sahara Desert Professor. One of the very few plants that survive there as it thrives on extreme weather conditions."  
  
"Well done Miss Chang," Professor Sprout beamed at her. "You should consider becoming a Herbologist!"  
  
"Uhh... I'll think about it," replied Cho, knowing there was not a chance she ever wanted to become somebody who talked to trees all day.  
  
The rest of the classes were quite similar to that of Herbology. More gossip, more chatter and more excited giggling.  
  
Cho thumped up the stairs to the Girls Dormitory ready for a hard earned shower. She grabbed her silk pyjamas and white towel and headed into the bathroom, locking herself in.  
  
She pulled her hair out of it's ponytail and stripped off all of her clothes. As strange as it was to stand there naked, she did and examined every part of her body.  
  
She pulled out her wand and pointed it at herself. "Wetaiahmass Cresendo!" A little green counter appeared in the air and started flipping back and forth until it had determined her exact weight in kilograms. '52' blinked the glowing green numerals.  
  
Cho stared unhappy at herself before running the shower taps. Perhaps if she was just to get down to 50. Yeah, that would be much better!  
  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note: Are you all getting a bit worried about Cho? I should think so! I myself am beginning to wonder how secure Little Miss Popular really is! I really sincerely apologise for the chapters being so devastatingly short but I have plans... don't you worry... there are plans! I'm not sure how to do the weight in 'pounds' because here in Australia we use 'kilograms' so I don't know how to calculate it. I don't think you use kilos in England so I know my story is inaccurate there. Putting that aside though, if you want to know more about the Quidditch moves I used, I looked in 'Quidditch Through the Ages'. In the last few pages it describes a bunch of famous tactics and some of those were included. I really wanted to write this fic I guess because I wanted to entwine a theme from our world ('muggle world' you might call it) into something in Harry Potter Land. So what do you think? Flame if you want to but remember I'll only laugh at it unless it has some reasonable purpose, content and evidence to back it up. Cheers! 


End file.
